Chapter 2 #2
Freya shrugged as if that was inconsequential.
“What did I need it for? He got my soul and now I’m immortal and…
powerful.” She accentuated her statement by extending her fingertips, sending a wave of Hellfire uncurling in the clouds above our heads.
A boom swept out, knocking the wind from my chest. “I’ll be able to do what no witch has ever been able to do before.
I’ll revive our lost coven. After I do, after my sisters are returned, we will be the ones controlling Calamity.
Isn’t that everything you wanted, Lilith? You want to stop Calamity, yes?”
“I want to stop it,” I confirmed, setting my jaw. “That means I want it to go back to where it came from, locked away. If you think you can control a literal force of chaos, then you’re insane.” Since she was a Blood Witch, being a little off her nut was kind of in the job criteria.
Her gaze cut toward me, the glow shorting out. “We’ll prove you wrong. If you don’t want to work with us, then stay out of our way.” She extended a hand to Olivia. “Come, sister. We have work to do.”
Olivia stiffened and I knew she was contemplating it, not because she agreed with Freya, but because she wanted to protect me. I recognized the desperate hope in her eyes when her gaze met mine. She would do anything to protect her friends, even if it meant going with this psycho.
“No,” I said, the statement a command that kept Olivia rooted to her spot. I would not allow it.
Freya’s hand dropped and her eyes narrowed in agitation. Whatever retort she had hovering on the tip of her tongue died as a familiar, deadly power rolled over us.
My mates gathered around me. Yuri and Olivia pressed closer.
None of us were surprised when Lucifer strolled through the damaged barrier, a sly smile on his stupidly handsome face. “Ah… I see you’re all getting to know one another. Freya, pet. Are you behaving?”
She giggled, like a girl with a crush when faced with her idol. She stroked the Blood Stone hanging around her neck. “Always, my Lord.”
He smirked as he took in the “welcoming committee,” my mates, my friends, and the strongest of the Academy’s students ready to take him out.
Jess’s silver-horned Demonspawn broke through the mist at our backs, as did Aaron’s panthers and Logan’s wolves.
Sauntering Succubi, Incubi, and vampires joined the army.
Supernaturals of all types had come together with a common goal.
To stop him.
The smile faded when Lucifer finished searching the crowd. “And where is that brother of mine? It’s not like him to miss out on the fun.”
“He’s tied up at the moment,” I said, glaring at him.
“Is that so? Hmm.” Lucifer’s wings fanned the air as he contemplated my statement.
“He was so greedy, determined to have you all to himself. I told him he had to learn patience and if he didn’t, it would come back to bite him.
But he was always convinced he knew what he was doing. Arrogant. Impatient. Impulsive.”
Orion huffed a humorless laugh. “That must run in the family.”
“Cole will learn his place,” I vowed. “As will you if you harm me or anyone I care about.”
Lucifer barked a laugh. “Oh, sweet child. You don’t understand, do you?
I’m not here to harm you. I’m here to help.
” His words slithered out in a gentle, seductive voice, one that would have sent Jess to her knees.
She had a thing for this demon, and I was glad she’d made herself scarce fighting off the horde of Demonspawn deeper in the Academy grounds.
I pointed my dagger at him. “If you want to help, then leave me alone. Calamity is destroying our realms, or are you too dumb to see that? It has already begun crushing the realms in on one another and we don’t know what’s going to happen next, but it won’t be good.
It’s my job to stop it and you’re only making it more difficult. ”
He swept in a long circle around me, red streaks of power radiating off of him. I knew what I was seeing; the power of Calamity itself. He’d taken on the role as the Conduit, allowing Calamity to work through him, control him.
He’d signed his own death warrant because of his sheer arrogance.
“You’re wrong,” he said, his kindness evaporating into impatience.
He bared his sharp teeth at me as a tail whipped around his ankles.
“Calamity is the most powerful force in the universe.” He glanced into the mist, toward the Enchanted Forest. “You know so little about the task you’ve taken on, child.
Calamity has been a part of our world since the dawn of time.
It cannot be destroyed. It is the culmination of magic, of the cycle of life and death itself.
To destroy Calamity would be to destroy that balance, you see, so it was locked away instead.
Every one thousand years Calamity reclaims what is owed.
It must keep the balance because it knows no other way.
Some call it death, some call it chaos, but it is a force of nature just like any other that simply needs proper guidance.
” He waved a hand at Freya, his wings fanning out as he straightened with pride.
“Just look what I have been able to accomplish as the Conduit. Such power at my fingertips can be manipulated to save a species from extinction, to revive it.”
Power emanated from Freya in waves—proof that Lucifer had indeed created a weapon that even I would have difficulty contending with.
A Blood Witch would use my own strengths against me, because my innate powers came from Hell.
There would only be one way to compete, but it would require locating my lost Virtues trapped in the remnants of Purgatory to unlock the rest of my angelic abilities I was only just beginning to understand. Something Lucifer knew all too well.
“You won’t get away with this,” I snarled. “You can’t hide behind a Blood Witch and call yourself the universe’s savior. I am the Champion of Calamity—I have been chosen to stop its effects. If Calamity could be controlled, don’t you think those before me would have done so?”
“You mean those like your mother?” he asked, a curl to his lips.
“She and I don’t see eye-to-eye on this matter, but perhaps you will succeed where she has failed.
Look at me, Lily. See the power at my command?
” He held out his hands and power saturated the air, sending red electric zaps flinging into the clouds.
His wings unfurled, now so large they seemed to blot out the sky.
He rose into the air, buoyed by a magical current rather than his wings.
That same magic seemed to clog the air in my lungs, it was so potent. Fear fluttered in my chest like a caged bird.
Freya was just the beginning.
Lucifer as the Conduit went against the cosmic design. Perhaps he could control it—to a degree. Enough to bring chaos to the realms and strike me down before I’d even begun.
But if he’d wanted me dead, he would have done it by now. My wings trembled when I realized the dark truth.
Lucifer intended to use me, just like Freya, just like all the pawns on his board.
And he’d sent Cole to wrap the chain around my neck, except that plan had backfired, so now he was here himself.
As I stared, debris rose to spin around Lucifer, forming a nimbus that spun with such speed, it was like a solid ring.
A strangled set of noises jerked my attention from him. Orion, Dante, Kaito, Logan, and Hendrik went to their knees, an unseen hand closed around each of their throats. Panic wafted through the mate-bonds, twisting my heart.
“Leave them alone!” I shouted, spinning back to Lucifer. I couldn’t fly, but I could attack. I formed a fireball in my hand and launched it at him. Freya reached out and diverted it before it got anywhere close to the demon.
Yuri roared and blurred in a burst of speed toward the Blood Witch, only to hit an invisible wall as she cracked hard against it, falling to the ground. She held her bleeding nose and writhed, spitting curses at the witch.
Lucifer grinned as if he’s already won and my rage took over, rage that Cole could have kept in check for me if he’d been here with us, united as one of my Virtues.
Instead, I gave in to my emotions and ran straight into Lucifer’s trap.
The ground gave out beneath me on all sides, falling away to reveal molten craters deep into Hell’s layers. Demonspawn crawled up the sides, their screeches calling to me, waiting for me to make a wrong move.
“Careful, Lilith,” Freya said in a sickly-sweet voice. “You don’t want to fall.”
My snarl was cut off by Lucifer’s booming voice.
“Enough. Lilith, even the Princess of Hell can’t match the power of Calamity.
You can’t match me, not with the assets I’ve collected over the years, thanks to witches like Freya.
We’ll retake Hell from your mother and her false ideals.
Then we’ll show all the realms what true power means, what it can do.
The realms will bow before me after I do what no one before me has ever been able to do.
I will control death itself.” He grinned, the wicked points of his fangs glinting in the red light.
“Which side of death do you plan to be on?”
Shaking with rage, I couldn’t do anything but glare. I was going to tear him apart. Through the mate circle, I felt my Virtues, their agony, their rage and I wanted to scream.
“I’ll be worshipped as a god,” Lucifer continued, giving me a look that told me I should worship him. “I’m going to stop death, Lily. All the realms will kneel at the very mention of my name.”
“You’re mad,” I said, shaking my head. “Death is part of life. If you take that away, there will be consequences you can’t even begin to imagine.” Fortune Academy had taught me about the importance of balance—and what happened when supernaturals attempted to tip the scales.
It was what had caused Calamity’s destruction in the first place. Calamity itself should never have gathered into one place, but an ancient Fate Witch had tried to do what Lucifer claimed was possible.
End death once and for all.
Such efforts only seemed to bring more death—not less of it.
He rolled his eyes at my warning. “You lack vision, precious child. Come… join us. Together, we’ll take down Calamity and put the pieces back together in my image.”
“No.”
He frowned, but didn’t seem surprised by my reluctance.
“You wish to learn the futility of defying me the hard way. Fine. I will show you the power I have over death, even now.” With a dramatic sigh, he waved a hand.
“All of this will burn and you’ll have a front-row seat to the death of everyone you love.
” He gave Freya a pleased smile. “Thanks to my witch, I have enough power to overcome this barrier once and for all. My Demonspawn will overrun it and in hours, all of this will be nothing but ashes.”
Unable to stop, I glanced at the gleaming pillar of golden light in the distance, my heart pleading for a solution. It was already fading, the power of Hell strangling it.
“I hope there’s nothing you value in Purgatory, Lilith. It’s a realm of death and doesn’t have a place in the new world. I’m bringing in an age of utopia. Purgatory will be destroyed.”
Inside what remained of the pocket realm, I felt them, my lost Virtues. They reached out for me and called to a dormant part of my soul. My nostrils flared as the faint scent of ambrosia filtered through the air.
“Time’s up,” Lucifer informed me as he gave Freya the signal.
She closed her eyes and threw her head back, her nostrils flaring as my mates roared in agony. Lucifer sent power slicing over their skin, making the ground red with their blood as they offered an unwilling sacrifice.
“Stop it!” I roared, never having felt so powerless in all my life.
An unholy shriek pierced the air and red blood portals tore ugly scars in the ground, so much larger than the ones I’d seen just days ago—it had only been days, right? Demonspawn came crawling through the gouges, their snarling hisses filling the air with the promise of death.
Orion fought through the pain and lunged forward, placing his body between me and the clutch of Demonspawn closest to me.
I was only vaguely aware of the rest of my mates, all of them doing the same, overcoming the agony as they leaped into battle and cut down the rising force of demons and Demonspawn.
The efforts proved futile. For every creature taken out, another dozen took its place.
Two Demonspawn slid past Orion and Logan, rushing toward me and Olivia. My claws slid free and I stepped forward, ripping out their throats, unleashing my fury on Lucifer’s Demonspawn.
Olivia’s soft voice cut through the chaos. “Lily…”
Spinning to her, I saw her on her feet, glowing, an unseen wind blowing her hair back from her face.
An invisible force drew Lucifer down from his perch in the skies, and likewise chained Freya, dragging them toward the chasm of Lucifer’s lower territories.
The bottom of my stomach dropped out at the sheer power coming from her as Lucifer beat his wings and Freya screamed with frustration. “Olivia,” I warned her. “Don’t do this.”
There was only one card Olivia had left to play that could compete with Calamity itself.
The sacrifice of her soul.
She met my eyes and shook her head. “I don’t have any other choice. Tell Trevor I love him.”
Her eyelids fluttered closed and I lunged forward. “No!”
Hendrik’s arms caught me and he took me to the ground. “She made her choice,” he growled through his pain. I knew he was right, but I lashed against him, unable to accept it.
By the time I freed myself of Hendrik’s grip, it was too late.
Magic tore the air above me, leaving only the dying screams of Demonspawn to drown out my cries. Lucifer and Freya sank into the pit and the ground sealed over them, trapping them deep underground.
My best friend contorted as something within her snapped and broke, her light dying in a brilliant white flash.
“Olivia!”